The incidence of dermatitis following application of foam tape in healthy volunteers-A prospective trial.

BACKGROUND: Foam tape is commonly used in the emergency department as a dressing over chest tubes owing to its occlusive and compressible properties. There is a paucity of data regarding the incidence of significant cutaneous reactions to this material. We conducted a prospective trial to evaluate the incidence of dermatitis following application of foam tape to the upper arm of a cohort of healthy volunteers. METHODS: This was a prospective, interventional trial. We enrolled a cohort of consenting, healthy physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff at a teaching facility who did not have known hypersensitivity to foam tape. Study investigators applied a 2 × 2 inch piece of 3 M microfoam adhesive to the medial aspect of each subject's upper arm. The contralateral arm served as a reference for comparison. The adhesive remained in place for 48 h and the study authors assessed patients utilizing the previously validated Cutaneous Irritancy Scoring System (CISS). Categorical variables analyzed by chi-square, continuous variables with t-tests. RESULTS: There were 40 subjects in the study group; 52% female, mean age 40±7 years, 55% non-White race. 10/40 (25%; 95%CI[14%, 41%]) of subjects had erythema; 9/40 (22%) had an erythema score of 1 and 1/40 (2.5%) had a score of 2. With respect to edema, 2/40 (5%; 95% CI[1%,18%]); 1/40(2.5%) had an edema score of 1, and 1/40(2.5%) had a score of 2. There were 9/40 subjects with an irritancy score > 0; (22%; 95%CI[12%,38%]); 7/40(18%) had an irritancy score of 1, and 2/4(5.0%) had a score of 2. In terms of the severity score, 10/40 (25%; 95%CI[14%, 41%]) had a score > 0; 9/40(22%) had a score of 1, and 1/40(2.5%) had a score of 2. Overall, 10/40 (25%; 95%CI[14%, 41%]) of subjects had at least one positive measure of a reaction of any kind. Subjects' age, gender and race were not found to be statistically significantly associated with the incidence of erythema, edema, or irritancy. In addition, these characteristics were not statistically significantly associated with severity score > 0. The p values for all the above bivariate analyses were > 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Cutaneous reactions occurred in 25% of healthy volunteers after the application of foam tape to the arm. Patient characteristics were not associated with risk of a skin reaction. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: #NCT06059417.

First and last authorship by gender in emergency medicine publications- a comparison of 2008 vs. 2018.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Recently, investigators reported that there remain substantial disparities in the proportion of women within emergency medicine (EM) who have achieved promotion to higher academic rankings, received grant funding, and attained departmental leadership positions. In 2007, women were first authors on 24% of EM-based peer-reviewed articles. Currently, 28% of the academic EM physician workforce is comprised of women. The goal of this study was to identify whether the proportion of female first authors of original research published in three U.S.-based EM journals increased in 2018 as compared to 2008. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of published original research articles during 2008 and 2018 in the journals Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), American Journal of Emergency Medicine (AJEM), and Annals of Emergency Medicine (Annals). Review articles, opinion pieces, consensus statements, practice recommendations based on current guidelines, and case reports were excluded from analysis. Investigators conducted a review of each article to identify the gender of the study's first and last authors. A study author blinded to the previous author's data abstraction reviewed a sample of 25 articles to assess for inter-rater reliability (kappa). Categorical data are presented as frequency of occurrence and analyzed by chi-square. RESULTS: Overall for the study journals, there were 368 original research articles published in 2008 vs. 580 in 2018. There were no significant differences noted for the proportion of female first author publications during 2008 vs 2018 overall (28% vs 30%; p = 0.38), within AJEM (29% vs 28%; p = 0.85), and observed at Annals (25% vs 24%; p = 0.82) respectively. However, there was a significant increase in the number of first author publications by females between the two periods within AEM (28% vs 45%; p < 0.01). There were no significant differences noted for the proportion of female last author publications during 2008 vs. 2018 overall (21% vs 22%; p = 0.70) and within each respective journal: AEM 22%% vs 26% (p = 0.51), AJEM 22% vs 19% (p = 0.55), and Annals 19% vs 22% (p = 0.20). Inter-rater reliability for author gender within the sample articles was excellent (0.83). CONCLUSION: While female physicians make up a disproportionate 28% of the academic workforce, we found that they were proportionally represented as first authors within several of the most prominent U.S.-based EM journals. Female resident physicians remain underrepresented as first authors and women remain underrepresented as last authors in the same journals.

A prospective study to assess the association of body mass index and contamination of urinalysis samples.

BACKGROUND: There is a commonly held belief that overweight women are more likely to offer contaminated urine samples (UAs) in the emergency department (ED) than women with normal body mass index (BMI). However, there is a paucity of research evaluating this potential concern. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that patients with higher BMI would be more likely to provide contaminated urine samples than women with low BMI. METHODS: This was a prospective, observational, cohort study evaluating consenting, adult, women that provided a clean catch, mid-stream sample at an inner-city ED. UAs were ordered at the discretion of the caring physician, cultures based on standardized parameters. The primary outcome parameter was the presence of UA contamination as defined by our microbiology lab. Demographic/historical data and BMI were recorded on a structured data sheet. Categorical data were analyzed by chi-square; continuous data by t-tests. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to control for confounding. RESULTS: There were 350 patients in the study group; 22% overweight, 35% obese, 17% morbidly obese, mean BMI 31. 5, and 60% provided contaminated specimens. The mean BMIs of the subjects with contaminated vs. uncontaminated UAs were significantly different (32.7 ±â€¯10.2 vs 29.7 ±â€¯8.8, p < 0.01). Within our multiple variable logistic regression model, obese and morbidly obese patients were more likely to provide contaminated UAs, while there were no significant associations for contamination with other variables except for hypertension (OR = 1.85, p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Obesity was significantly associated with contamination of clean catch mid-stream samples in our population.

ED treatment of migraine patients has changed.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Numerous studies have shown benefits of nonnarcotic treatments for emergency department (ED) migraine patients. Our goal was to determine if ED treatment of migraine patients and the rate of return within 72 h have changed. METHODS: Design: Multi-hospital retrospective cohort. POPULATION: Consecutive ED patients from 1-1-1999 to 9-31-2014. PROTOCOL: For determining treatments, we examined charts at the beginning (1999-2000) and end (2014) of the time period. We combined similar medications into the following groups: parenteral narcotics, oral narcotics, antihistamines and dopamine receptor antagonists prochlorperazine/metoclopramide (DRA). We calculated the percent of migraine patients given each treatment in each time period. We identified those who returned to the same ED within 72 h, and calculated the difference in annual return rates between 1999-2000 and 2014. RESULTS: Of the 2,824,710 total visits, 8046 (0.28%) were for migraine. We reviewed 290 charts (147 in 1999-2000 and 143 in 2014) to determine migraine treatments. The use of IV fluids, DRA, ketorolac and dexamethasone increased from 1999-2000 to 2014, whereas narcotic use and discharge prescriptions for narcotics decreased. Of the 8046 migraine patients, 624 (8%) returned within 72 h. The return rate decreased from 1999-2000 to 2014 from 12% to 4% (difference = 8%, 95% CI 5%-11%). CONCLUSION: For ED migraine patients, the use of IV fluids, DRA, ketorolac and dexamethasone increased whereas the use of narcotics and discharge prescriptions for narcotics decreased. The return rates for migraines decreased. We speculate that the increased use of non-narcotic medications contributed to this decrease.

Sensitivity of urinary pathogens for patients discharged from the emergency department compared with the hospital antibiogram.

BACKGROUND: Data for hospital antibiograms are typically compiled from all patients, regardless of disposition, demographics and other comorbidities. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that the sensitivity patterns for urinary pathogens would differ significantly from the hospital antibiogram in patients that were discharged from the emergency department (ED). METHODS: We evaluated a retrospective cohort of all adult patients with positive urine cultures treated in the 2016 calendar year at an inner-city academic ED. Positive urine cultures defined by our institution's microbiology department. Investigators conducted a structured review of an electronic medical record (EMR) to collect demographic, historical and microbiology records. We utilized a one-sample test of proportion to compare the sensitivity of each organism for discharged patients to the hospital published antibiogram. Alpha set at 0.05. RESULTS: During the study period, 414 patients were discharged from the ED and found to have positive urine cultures; 20% age > 60 years old, 85% female, 79% Hispanic, 33% diabetic. The most common organisms was E. coli (78%). E. coli was sensitive to Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole for 59% vs. 58% in our antibiogram (p = 0.77), Ciprofloxacin 81% vs. 69% (p < 0. 001), Nitrofurantoin 96% vs 95%; (p = 0.25). K. pneumoniae was sensitive to Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole 87% vs. 80% in our antibiogram (p = 0.26), Ciprofloxacin 100% vs. 92% (p = 0.077), Nitrofurantoin 86% vs 41% (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: For our predominantly Hispanic study group with a high prevalence of diabetes, we found that our hospital antibiogram had relatively good value in guiding antibiotic therapy though for some organism/antibiotic combinations sensitivities were higher than expected.

CT imaging history for patients presenting to the ED with renal colic--evidence from a multi-hospital database.

BACKGROUND: Patients with renal colic have a 7% chance of annual recurrence. Previous studies evaluating cumulative Abbreviations: computed tomography (CT) exposure for renal colic patients were typically from single centers. METHODS: This was an observational cohort study. Inner-city ED patients with a final diagnosis of renal colic were prospectively identified (1/10/16-10/16/16). Authors conducted structured electronic record reviews from a 6-hospital system encompassing over 192,000 annual ED visits. Categorical data analyzed by chi-square; continuous data by t-tests. Primary outcome measure was the proportion of study group patients with prior history CT abdomen/pelvis CT. RESULTS: Two hundred thirteen patients in the study group; 59% male, age 38+/- 10 years, 67% Hispanic, 62% prior stone history, flank pain (78%), dysuria (22%), UA (+) blood (75%). 60% (95% CI = 53-66%) of patients received an EDCV CT; hydronephrosis seen in 55% (95% CI = 46-63%), stone in 90%(95% CI = 83-94%). No significant differences observed in the proportion of EDCV patients who received CT with respect to: female vs. male (62% vs. 56%; p = 0.4), mean age (37+/- 9 years vs. 39+/- 11 years; p = 0.2), and Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic white (63% vs.63%; p = 0.96). Patients with a prior stone history were more likely than those with no history to receive an EDCV CT (88% vs. 16%; p < 0.001). 118 (55%; 95% CI = 49-62%) of patients had at least one prior CT, 46 (22%; 95% CI = 16-28%) had ≥3 prior CTs; 29 (14%; 95% CI = 10-19%), ≥ 10 prior CTs. Patients who did not receive an EDCV CT had a significantly higher mean prior number of CTs than those who had EDCV CT (5.1+/- 7.7 vs 2.2+/- 4.9; p < 0.001). Patients with prior stone were more likely to receive only U/S during EDCV (33% vs. 15%; p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Within our EDCV cohort of renal colic patients, 55% had at least one prior CT. The mean number of prior CTs was lower for patients receiving CT on EDCV, and Ultrasound (US) alone was used more often in patients with prior stone history vs. those with no prior history.

Intubations in elderly patients have decreased from 1999 through 2014-Results of a multi-center cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Advances in pharmacologic therapy, non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) and advanced directives may have decreased the intubations of dyspneic elderly (≥65years old) patients in the emergency department (ED). OBJECTIVE: To determine if the percentage of elderly ED patients intubated has decreased in recent years. METHODS: Design: Retrospective multihospital cohort. SETTING: Consecutive ED patients in nine NJ hospitals (1/1/1999 to 9/30/2014). PROTOCOL: We identified patients intubated in the ED by CPT codes. DATA ANALYSIS: We calculated the annual percentage of patients ≥65 intubated and the percentage intubated by diagnosis along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Of the 5,693,380 total patients in the database there were 1,065,371 visits for patients≥65. Their average age was 80±8years; 54% were female. Of these, 6297 were intubated (0.59%). From 1999 to 2014 the percent intubated decreased from 0.73% to 0.52%, a relative decrease of 29% (95% CI: 17%, 38%). The specific diagnoses with >500 intubations were congestive heart failure (CHF), pneumonia and cardiac arrest, accounting for 37% of the total. Of these three, CHF was the only diagnosis with a statistically significant change from 1999 to 2014: a relative decrease of 70% (95% CI: 53%, 81%). If all diagnoses without CHF are analyzed the overall relative decrease is 14% (95% CI: 3%, 24%). CONCLUSION: Intubation rates for patients≥65 decreased from 1999 through 2014, particularly in CHF patients. We speculate that these findings reflect wider implementation of NIPPV, other therapeutic modalities and advanced directives.

Prior CT imaging history for patients who undergo whole-body CT for acute traumatic injury and are discharged home from the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Recurrent CT imaging is believed to significantly increase lifetime malignancy risk. We previously reported that high acuity, admitted trauma patients who received a whole-body CT in the emergency department (ED) had a history of prior CT imaging in 14% of cases. The primary objective of this study was to determine the CT imaging history for trauma patients who received a whole-body CT but were ultimately deemed safe for discharge directly home from the ED. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at an academic ED. All trauma patients who were discharged directly home from the ED after whole-body CT were analyzed. The decision to utilize whole-body CT was at the discretion of the caring physician during the study period. Clinical data for the most recent trauma visit was recorded in a structured fashion on a standardized data collection instrument utilizing the hospital system electronic medical record (EMR). Subsequently, study investigators reviewed a shared, electronic radiological archive for the 6-hospital system to evaluate prior CT exposure for each patient. RESULTS: 165 patients were in the study group. The mean age of the study group was 39+/- 16 years old, 40% were female and 64% were Hispanic. The most common mechanism of injury in our study group was motor vehicle crash (MVC) (66%). In our study group, 25% had at least one prior CT. The most common prior studies performed were: CT abdomen/pelvis (13%), CT head (9.1%), CT face (6.7%), and CT chest (1.8%). Within a multivariate logistic regression model we found that the large majority of patient characteristics and mechanisms of injury were not associated with a positive prior CT imaging history. CONCLUSION: We found a positive history for prior CT for 25% of trauma patients who received whole-body CT scan but were discharged from the ED to home.

Increased door to admission time is associated with prolonged throughput for ED patients discharged home.

BACKGROUND: Emergency Department (ED) service evaluations are typically based on surveys of discharged patients. Physicians/administrators benefit from data that quantifies system-based factors that adversely impact the experience of those who represent the survey cohort. OBJECTIVE: While investigators have established that admitted patient boarding impacts overall ED throughput times, we sought to specifically quantify the relationship between throughput times for patients admitted (EDLOS) versus discharged home from the ED (DCLOS). METHODS: We performed a prospective analysis of consecutive patient encounters at an inner-city ED. Variables collected: median daily DCLOS for ED patients, ED daily census, left without being seen (LWBS), median door to doctor, median room to doctor, and daily number admitted. Admitted patients divided into 2 groups based on daily median EDLOS for admits (<6 hours, ≥6 hours). Continuous variables analyzed by t-tests. Multivariate regression utilized to identify independent effects of the co-variants on median daily DCLOS. RESULTS: We analyzed 24,127 patient visits. ED patient DCLOS was longer for patients seen on days with prolonged EDLOS (193.7 minutes, 95%CI 186.7-200.7 vs. 152.8, 144.9-160.5, P< .0001). Variables that were associated with increased daily median EDLOS for admits included: daily admits (P= 0.01), room to doctor time (P< .01), number of patients that left without being seen (P< .01). When controlling for the covariate daily census, differences in DCLOS remained significant for the ≥6 hours group (189.4 minutes, 95%CI 184.1-194.7 vs. 164.8, 155.7-173.9 (P< .0001). CONCLUSION: Prolonged ED stays for admitted patients were associated with prolonged throughput times for patients discharged home from the ED.